Welsh Journals

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The gods gave him nearly eighty years of life, but not a day's peace-for from his earliest youth he was troubled and tossed by the wilful winds of great crusades. His father-Evan Evans, Nantyglo (by birth of Llangeitho)-had also heard the call to the pioneer, and tasted of the suffering and persecution which always follows it. But Beriah, the son, never became disillusioned. He lived pioneering. He risked every- thing early in life to become the first secretary of the Welsh Language Society, which secured, after a good deal of effort, the official recognition by the Board of Education of the home language in the schools. Although his name is only casually mentioned in the recent Report on Welsh in Education and Life, there would have been no Departmental Inquiry or Report but for Beriah's pioneering work. He was the first tiller of the unploughed field of drama in Wales, and although (probably owing to his many other interests) his own contributions to dramatic literature were not of any great merit, he cleared myriads of obstacles for those who followed. W. B. Yeats rightly declared- without complete knowledge but with perfect intuition,-that Wales and the Welsh Drama owe more to the good Nationalist Beriah Evans than many to-day realise." He ventured into the field of modern religious history in Wales and found it full of hornets' nests, but by his intrepidity he gave truth a new chance. He was easily the greatest Welsh journalist of his generation and, as such, would have received far greater honour but for the fact that he never concealed in his pack the weapons-the pistols and the sharp-edged axes-of the pioneer. Wales may well lament the passing of Beriah. There is no one left quite like him, and we are a great deal poorer for his death. WHAT books do our children like W best, and why? How far does the age of a child define its choice of subject? What is the import- ance of illustrations to each successive age? Is there any correspondence between the literary and the artistic choice of subject? What course does the growth of a love of books follow? Can we discover any literary preferences, or groups of prefer- ences, sufficiently constant in relation to age to be of use for suggesting a progressive course of educative reading which will be genuinely attractive to the modern child? The subject is fascinating to the teacher and to the parent alike, and we publish this month an account of a preliminary enquiry into its problems. The investigation was undertaken on behalf of the Advisory Education Committee of the Welsh League of Nations Union. It has been confined so far to two schools, covering 296 boys of ages between 7 and 14. The results obtained from so limited a field cannot be regarded as in any way conclusive, but they are certainly suggestive, and an extension of the field might yield valuable informa- tion. The object of the enquiry is to assist the Advisory Education Committee in drawing up a world-wide reading scheme for children, and the co-operation of teachers and all interested is invited. Results obtained may be addressed to this journal. READERS of the Welsh Outlook will be glad to know that a new book by Mr. T. P. Ellis will be published early in the new year. In The Story of Two Welsh Parishes he tells, in a simple and popular form, the economic, social and ecclesiastical history of the parishes of Dolgelley and Llanelltyd. The book .v»!l be illustrated by sketches by well-known artists, and will contain articles on the birds, geology and flora of the neighbour- hood written by experts in those subjects. The whole is set in a background of Welsh national history. There must be many parishes in Wales whose stories are worth the telling, and we hope that the example set by Mr. Ellis will be copied by other historians. Work of this kind has a national as well as a local importance, and should not be left undone.